Parents fume over excess school fee

CHENNAI: The second wave of parents' protests over schools' violation of the fee structure fixed by the Justice Govindarajan Commitee started to roll on Thursday when parents of students in the CSI Bains School, Kilpauk, in the city created a stir over the school's demand for the second term fee, which was much higher than what was prescribed in the fee structure.

This despite the recent order by the committee that schools have to abide by the fee structure fixed by it for this year, till it comes out with a rerevised fee structure in the next year. About 250 parents protested, over the second term fees collection.

A parent who protested said that not just for the first term, the school had demanded excess fees even for the second term, much higher than prescribed by the committee.

According to parents, the school has not given the regular calendar and diary to the students, where the fees for all the three terms are mentioned officially; instead, they have sent oral instructions indicating the fees.

Narendran, a parent, pointed out that instead of collecting Rs 3,840 as already instructed for the second term, the school had demanded Rs 5,780, this even as the fee structure prescribed by the committee was Rs 3,500.

The committee's instructions have not been complied with by the school authorities at all, he said, adding that when the parents approached the management, they said that the governmentfixed fee structure did not hold for private schools.

Schools have a simple get away by saying, "take your child off the school, if you have any complaints," complain parents. Parents said the school management has requested for three days time to sort out the issue.

The school authorities could not be reached for their comments.